Recent applications of Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (L8/OLI) and Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (S2/MSI) data for acquiring information about land use and land cover (LULC) provide a new perspective in remote sensing data analysis. Jointly, these sources permit researchers to improve operational classification and change detection, guiding better reasoning about landscape and intrinsic processes, as deforestation and agricultural expansion. However, the results of their applications have not yet been synthesized in order to provide coherent guidance on the effect of their applications in different classification processes, as well as to identify promising approaches and issues which affect classification performance. In this systematic review, we present trends, potentialities, challenges, actual gaps, and future possibilities for the use of L8/OLI and S2/MSI for LULC mapping and change detection. In particular, we highlight the possibility of using medium-resolution (Landsat-like, 10–30 m) time series and multispectral optical data provided by the harmonization between these sensors and data cube architectures for analysis-ready data that are permeated by publicizations, open data policies, and open science principles. We also reinforce the potential for exploring more spectral bands combinations, especially by using the three Red-edge and the two Near Infrared and Shortwave Infrared bands of S2/MSI, to calculate vegetation indices more sensitive to phenological variations that were less frequently applied for a long time, but have turned on since the S2/MSI mission. Summarizing peer-reviewed papers can guide the scientific community to the use of L8/OLI and S2/MSI data, which enable detailed knowledge on LULC mapping and change detection in different landscapes, especially in agricultural and natural vegetation scenarios.

Recently, remote sensing image time series analysis has being widely used to investigate the dynamics of environments over time. Many studies have combined image time series analysis with machine learning methods to improve land use and cover change mapping. In order to support image time series analysis, analysis-ready data (ARD) image collections have been modeled and organized as multidimensional data cubes. Data cubes can be defined as sets of time series associated with spatially aligned pixels. Based on lessons learned in the research project e-Sensing, related to national demands for land use and cover monitoring and related to state-of-the-art studies on relevant topics, we define the requirements to build Earth observation data cubes for Brazil. This paper presents the methodology to generate ARD and multidimensional data cubes from remote sensing images for Brazil. We describe the computational infrastructure that we are developing in the Brazil Data Cube project, composed of software applications and Web services to create, integrate, discover, access, and process the data sets. We also present how we are producing land use and cover maps from data cubes using image time series analysis and machine learning techniques.

Tropical forests regulate the global water and carbon cycles and also host most of the world’s biodiversity. Despite their importance, they are hard to survey due to their location, extent, and particularly, their cloud coverage. Clouds hinder the spatial and radiometric correction of satellite imagery and also diminishing the useful area on each image, making it difficult to monitor land change. For this reason, our purpose is to identify the cloud detection algorithm best suited for the Amazon rainforest on Sentinel–2 images. To achieve this, we tested four cloud detection algorithms on Sentinel–2 images spread in five areas of the Amazonia. Using more than eight thousand validation points, we compared four cloud detection methods: Fmask 4, MAJA, Sen2Cor, and s2cloudless. Our results point out that FMask 4 has the best overall accuracy on images of the Amazon region (90%), followed by Sen2Cor’s (79%), MAJA (69%), and S2cloudless (52%). We note the choice of method depends on the intended use. Since MAJA reduces the number of false positives by design, users that aim to improve the producer’s accuracy should consider its use.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is related to the use of fire to remove natural vegetation and install crop cultures or pastures. In this study, we evaluated the relation between deforestation, land-use and land-cover (LULC) drivers and fire emissions in the Apyterewa Indigenous Land, Eastern Brazilian Amazon. In addition to the official Brazilian deforestation data, we used a geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) approach to perform the LULC mapping in the Apyterewa Indigenous Land, and the Brazilian biomass burning emission model with fire radiative power (3BEM_FRP) to estimate emitted particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM_2.5), a primary human health risk. The GEOBIA approach showed a remarkable advancement of deforestation, agreeing with the official deforestation data, and, consequently, the conversion of primary forests to agriculture within the Apyterewa Indigenous Land in the past three years (200 km²), which is clearly associated with an increase in the PM_2.5 emissions from fire. Between 2004 and 2016 the annual average emission of PM_2.5 was estimated to be 3594 ton year⁻¹, while the most recent interval of 2017–2019 had an average of 6258 ton year⁻¹. This represented an increase of 58% in the annual average of PM_2.5 associated with fires for the study period, contributing to respiratory health risks and the air quality crisis in Brazil in late 2019. These results expose an ongoing critical situation of intensifying forest degradation and potential forest collapse, including those due to a savannization forest-climate feedback, within “protected areas” in the Brazilian Amazon. To reverse this scenario, the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices and development of conservation policies to promote forest regrowth in degraded preserves are essential.

Conserving tropical forests is crucial for the environment and future of our climate. Tropical rainforests worldwide, including the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA), offer exceptional ecosystem services. However, the disturbances that have been occurring more frequently within them are endangering their key role in tackling climate change. An alternative approach for preserving the intact forests that remain in the BLA is the delimitation of Indigenous Lands (ILs), which can, additionally, ensure the well-being of the traditional peoples inhabiting there. An increase in deforestation rates of the BLA in recent years, due to the weakening of the Brazilian environmental policy, is not confined to unprotected areas but is also occurring within ILs. Under this scenario, mining, not allowed in ILs, is a growing threat in these protected areas. Thus, using the freely available MapBiomas dataset, we have quantified for the first time the total mining area within ILs of the BLA from 1985 to 2020. Such activity jumped from 7.45 km² in 1985 to 102.16 km² in 2020, an alarming increase of 1271%. Three ILs (Kayapó, Mundurukú, and Yanomami) concentrated 95% of the mining activity within ILs in 2020 and, therefore, they require closer monitoring. Most of the mining in ILs in 2020 (99.5%) was related to gold extraction. A total of 25 of the 31 ILs of the BLA where mining activity was detected in at least one of 36 years analyzed (~81% of them) had a statistically significant increasing trend according to the Mann–Kendall test at 5%. The datasets used or cited in this study (MapBiomas, PRODES, and DETER) enable the monitoring of the current status of ILs, and the identification of emerging trends related to illegal activities. Therefore, they are critical tools for legal authorities.